Narratives and Characters

So this post will be about today’s lecture about narratives and characters. 

First up on stage, give it up for the Narratives.

Everything we have done here since I arrived on this island has been so much fun! And today was no exception, since narratives and strong characters are one of the things that I love with (some) video games. We went through the different approaches to writing a good story, like the 3 and 9 act and also “the Hero’s Journey” (these are used to write good and coherent stories). These acts have been used to build stories and myths for many, many years and it is still used through out cinema, TV-shows and the theater.

Above is a quick 3 stage map of the Hero’s Journey and what all the stages should contain.

The acts in the 3 and 9 act where something I kind of new about already, but it was nice to see it written down and that it was a legit way to go about when it comes to narratives.  

How the characters are constructed were also quite familiar as well. But also nice to know that my initial thoughts were correct. Adam talked about creating or “forming” your character in a way that visualize his/her behaviors. For instance, a nice and warm old man should have a round silhouette, and all sharp and pointy angles should be avoided since it portrays a cold and evil character.

We also went through the importance of character progression and likeability. The hero should always have a flaws so that the audience can relate to the character. The hero should then progress to overcome his flaws or learn to live with it and use them to his advantage.

To wrap up the summary, I will end on a quote Adam said during today’s lecture.

– Nothing you do will be doing in your game will be by accident. Everything should be done on purpose. 

I need to put that up on a wall somewhere.  

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Tomorrow will be a post about our major assignment!